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VOICEOVER:
The Key of David with Gerald Flurry.

GERALD FLURRY:
Greetings, everyone.

I’m speaking to you today from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This is the place where a
terrible battle was fought. Forty-eight-thousand men died here in Gettysburg during the
Civil War, one of the greatest, most important battles of that war. Forty-eight-thousand
men died in three days. We only had 58,000 men die during the Vietnam War in ten
years! But here we had so many die in such a short amount of time. That happened in
America. All that bitterness and all that hatred was on this soil; it happened in this very
area, and of course, we see quite a lot of division even in America today.

Behind me is what is called East Cemetery Hill. The Confederates took that hill, and then
they didn’t get the expected reinforcements. Later on they had to retreat, and they lost
350 of their soldiers in that retreat. One of their officers, Colonel Isaac Avery, was shot in
the saddle, and he told his men to be sure and tell everybody that he died facing the
enemy. If you look closely you can probably see tombstones behind me through the trees
on that hill.

I wanted to read you something here from Garry Wills in his book, Lincoln at
Gettysburg. He had this to say about this area, “Householders had to plant around the
bodies in their fields and gardens, or brace themselves to move the rotting corpses to
another place. Soon these uneasy graves were being rifled by relatives looking for their
dead. Reburying their bodies, they turned up even more hastily and less adequately than
had the first disposal crews. Three weeks after the battle a prosperous Gettysburg banker,
David Wills, reported to Pennsylvania’s Governor Curtin, ‘and in many instances arms
and legs and sometimes heads protrude, and my attention has been directed to several
places where the hogs were actually rooting out the bodies and devouring them.’ In the
meanwhile, the whole area of Gettysburg, a town of only 2500 inhabitants, was one
makeshift burial ground fetid and steaming.”

I mean this had become an environmental nightmare. Can you imagine this little town
being one huge grave? And looking around in some areas seeing an arm or a hand
protruding from the ground, or maybe a head? I mean that was something that is even
hard for us to imagine in peaceful America today.

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Abraham Lincoln became very discouraged at one time in the war because there was so
much evil going on. People were lying and they were doing all kinds of terrible things,
and he couldn’t understand that. He was a very righteous man, and he said, “Here we are
on the brink of destruction, and yet we have people going around and telling lies that you
couldn’t even impose upon a child ordinarily.” Why is that? He saw great evil in the land,
and that offended his righteousness.

And I want to talk to you about two proclamations that were made in the year 1863—
both of them very closely related, and frankly both of them revolving around God and
sin. Here is what Abraham Lincoln said, “We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of
the fairest portion of the Earth, as regards fertility of soil, extent of territory, and salubrity
of climate. We find ourselves a legal inheritance of these fundamental blessings. We
toiled not in the acquirement or the establishment of them.”

Well, where did we get all of these blessings in America, the wealthiest, richest nation in
the world? Abraham Lincoln said we didn’t toil for that. It was given to us! And of
course, we’ve been telling you that for years.

But in a proclamation April 30, 1863 for a nationwide Day of Fasting and Prayer, here is
what Mr. Lincoln said, “It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their
dependence upon the overruling power of God, and to recognize the sublime truth
announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history that those nations only are
blessed whose God is the Lord.”

Can you imagine a president talking that way today, or a member of Congress, that
“those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord”? Pretty strong statement. It would
offend a lot of people, but he said it.

Mr. Lincoln goes on to say, “We have been the recipients of the choicest blessings of
heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have
grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown, but we have
forgotten God.” But we have forgotten God. Now, if he thought they had forgotten God
then, how about today? How about this time in America?

He goes on to say, “We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace
and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us. We have vainly imagined in the
deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior
wisdom and virtue of our own.”

All this wealth, all these blessings in this country, more than any place on this Earth.
Where did we get those blessings? Where did they come from? Well, Abraham Lincoln
began to realize very deeply that they came from God, and he was trying to convey that
to the people in America at that time and get them to think about God.

Now, we have all these blessings because of another Abraham in the Bible who was
obedient to God, and we’ve explained that in our booklet on The United States and
Britain in Prophecy for years, that we were given all these blessings as a result of
Abraham’s obedience.
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Mr. Lincoln said that America at that time had forgotten God, and look how much worse
it is today. If you want to make some comparisons, how much worse is it today than it
was then? And yet he said they had forgotten God, and no president has ever talked to the
American people about God like Abraham Lincoln did. Not before or since, frankly. And
we say he was the greatest president we’ve ever had, and most people would, I think, say
that. And what about his example? And what about his instruction to us today?

Now, we have serious problems in our nation today. We’re even discussing the possible
impeachment of our president. I’d say that’s a pretty difficult problem to deal with. Is it
because we, too, have forgotten God? Is that at the heart of the problem? Well, we need
to learn from this greatest of all presidents, as far as I’m concerned, in the United States.

He concludes by saying, “Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-
sufficient to feel the necessity for redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to
the God that made us. It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended
power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” Then that
president, he set aside a national Day of Prayer and Fasting.

But he said God has been offended by what we’ve done, by our rebellion in this war, our
belief in slavery, and certain problems like that in this land, and he said we need to
confess our national sins. Confess our national sins! Well, I mean when you go around
seeing arms and hands and heads protruding from the ground because of a terrible battle,
I suppose it’s time to get serious.

But he, in one sense, brought the nation to their knees. Shortly, just a few months before
this battle here at Gettysburg after the north had lost victories in Chancellorsville and
Fredericksburg, Abraham Lincoln went into his room and locked the door, got down on
his knees, and prayed to God for victory at Gettysburg. It was already beginning to build,
and he knew there was going to be a battle there. Prayed to God, according to Wayne
Whipple, one of his biographers, that God would give him victory, and he made a vow to
God and said, “If you give us victory I will stand by you, and I will take a stand for you
every opportunity I have.” And I think Abraham Lincoln did.

Now, it is interesting that the tide of war changed here in Gettysburg. Who changed that?
Did prayer to God change that?

If we were to bring our nation to its knees today, if we had a president or a congress that
had the courage to do that, what a difference it would make in our land, and what a
difference it made during the Civil War, even though we might tend to deny that. Look at
the fruits. Look at the fruits.

Here’s a little more of that proclamation. He says, “Whereas a Joint Committee of both
Houses of Congress has waited on the President of the United States and requested him to
recommend a day of public humiliation, prayer and fasting to be observed by the people
of the United States with religious solemnities and the offering of fervent supplications to
Almighty God for the safety and welfare of these States.” Both Houses of Congress, the
House of Representatives and the Senate asking the president to have a Day of Fasting
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and Prayer that God might heal the nation. The nation was healed. The war changed here
at Gettysburg and began to then go in the favor of the north, and the union was saved.
The union was saved.

But imagine that happening today in this land. The president and both Houses of
Congress praying to God and having a day of fasting and prayer to heal the land. What a
difference that would make regarding our problems today. I mean actually recognizing
the supreme government of God. That would be refreshing, indeed.

But he went on to talk about the sins of the nation. And this proclamation also reads,
“And whereas when our own beloved country once by the blessing of God united,
prosperous and happy, is now afflicted with faction and war.”

And he went on to say a little further, “We need to humble ourselves before Him and to
pray for His mercy, to pray that we may be spared further punishment, though most justly
deserved.” I mean, he felt that they were being punished for their sins, punished by God
because of that war and because of what they had done leading up to that war. Punished
by God? Does God punish nations that way? Will He punish us this way? Well, Abraham
Lincoln certainly thought so if you look at his beliefs here.

So he said, “Therefore I, President of the United States, do appoint the last Thursday in
September next as a day of humiliation, prayer, and fasting for all the people.” And trying
to get them to go, as he said, to that throne of grace.

But how far have we gotten from God today compared to where they were then? How far
are we from God? Can you imagine something like this happening? And yet we call
Lincoln a great president, perhaps the greatest we’ve ever had. Do we follow his
example? Will we listen to his instructions today? Will we learn and avoid a crisis like
this again? And who’s to say we’re not heading for something like that? I tell you there
are many Bible scriptures that says we are.

But God punished America, and Lincoln thought one of the reasons they were punished
was because of slavery, and it was wiped out after the Civil War. It was gone, and God
did take it away. And Lincoln said, “Look, let’s think about both the north and the south
being guilty. Everybody tolerated it. We’re all guilty. Let’s think about that, and let’s
think about a new cause of revering God and applying the justice of God in our land. The
justice of God and the goodness of God.” He made some beautiful statements and said
that we have to get rid of our sins and repent of our sins, and God punished them
violently! Abraham Lincoln certainly believed that.

Now he freed the slaves, but are we free of racial hatred? Oh, no, I would say it’s in some
respects getting worse. How are we going to solve that? Is it going to take another crisis
like the Civil War? Are we going to have to have race riots or all kinds of problems like
that to solve our hatred between races?

Well, Jesus Christ said if you hate your neighbor or your fellow man you’re guilty of
murder. Now, if we listen to Christ we could solve that problem today, but are we going

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to do it? Or is it going to take another crisis for us to see our own sins and to repent of
them?

After that day of prayer, which was really for the crisis at hand—that was in April
1863—President Lincoln I think wanted a day where they could thank God and focus on
God for all time. So he had another proclamation, and I think it really flowed from this
first one on prayer and fasting, so that we could have a national holiday, and I want to
read to you a quote from this proclamation about Thanksgiving. Now, this happened a
week-and-a-half after the battle here at Gettysburg. Here is the proclamation he made,
“Proclamation of Thanksgiving.” He said, “It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to the
supplications and prayers of an afflicted people and to vouchsafe to the army and the
navy of the United States victories on land and on the sea, so signal and so effective, and
to furnish reasonable grounds for augmented confidence that the union of these states will
be maintained, their Constitution preserved, and their peace and prosperity permanently
restored.” Peace and prosperity restored.

“It is meet and right to recognize and confess the presence of the Almighty Father and the
power of His hand equally in these triumphs and in these sorrows. Now therefore be it
known that I do set apart Thursday, the 6th, to be observed as a day for national
thanksgiving, praise, and prayer.” Praise and prayer!

“And I invite the people of the United States to assemble on that occasion in their
customary places of worship, and in the forms approved by their own consciences render
the homage to the divine majesty for the wonderful things He has done in the nation’s
behalf.” Appealing to the people on the day of Thanksgiving to praise God and pray to
God and assemble and worship God on that day, and thank God, as he said, for all the
“wonderful things He has done in the nation’s behalf.”

Now how well do we follow that instruction today on our day of Thanksgiving? What do
we do on the day of Thanksgiving? Do we worship God? Pray to God? Praise God? Or
do we get into sports and drunkenness and all other kinds of evil? Do we really think
about God on that day? Do we really set it aside as worship for God? I think anybody in
the audience knows that’s not true. We don’t do that. We don’t do that, and we have
serious problems today, and there is a connection. There is a connection. God says so.

But here we are again, this wealthiest nation in the world, and can’t we set aside a day
and thank God and praise Him for all that He’s done for us?

Notice Deuteronomy 8, verses 11 through 14. Here’s what God says, “Beware that thou
forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and
his statutes, which I command thee this day: (12) Lest when thou hast eaten and art full,”
like we are, you see, at Thanksgiving time, “and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt
therein; (13) And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is
multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; (14) Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou
forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the
house of bondage;”

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You forget. But He says in verses 1 and 2 we ought to remember and humble ourselves.
Remember and humble ourselves. And we ought to remember, we ought to remember
today about Gettysburg and losing 48,000 men in three days. We ought to remember that
and all the bitterness and all the hatred that was going on in this land and it’s building
again today in a lot of ways. We have many problems. How are we going to solve them?

Abraham Lincoln thought there was only one way to solve them, and he knew he could
not, and he said so. And he said only God can solve our problems; they’re too big for
men. Men can’t solve these problems. How can men solve problems like a nation falling
apart and being disunited?

And now we have so many blessings today as a result of what God did through Abraham
Lincoln and people at that time. Look at the peace, and look at the prosperity, and look at
the happiness we have had being a United States, rather than a disunited group of states,
where we wouldn’t have near the prosperity and wouldn’t have near the abundance. What
a difference it makes if we thank God and praise God.

II Timothy 3, verses 1 and 2, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall
come. (2) For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,” Unthankful? This is a prophecy
for the last days. Unthankful. We’re living in the last days. Are we thankful? God says
we’re not. And we’re unholy. We need a day of thanksgiving kept for the right purposes,
and with the purpose in mind that Abraham Lincoln had when he established it as a
national holiday in 1863 during the Civil War. During the Civil War, and just shortly
after this terrible battle right here, just a few days later.

But do we remember what happened? Do we remember all of those many men who died
that we may live, and that we may have one nation under God? They died so we could
have all of those freedoms and joys.

Verse 2 says, “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, (3) Without natural affection,”
we don’t even the natural affection we once had in the families, “trucebreakers, false
accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, (4) Traitors, heady,
highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;” Wow! Does that ever strike
home today? Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God? Well, why don’t we examine
our Thanksgiving day and see if that isn’t true. Just one day and see if we don’t love
pleasure more than we love God, over all, and then you can begin to see why we have so
many problems in this land today.

Timothy concludes by saying, (5) “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power
thereof: from such turn away.” Turn away from that way of living.

At the end of the war, according again to Wayne Whipple, one of his biographers, after
General Lee surrendered at Appomattox, President Lincoln got all of his Cabinet together
and they bowed down on their knees and thanked God that the war was over. They
thanked God that it was over. The whole Cabinet prayed to God and thanked Him. I
wonder if that has ever been done since. I wonder if it’s ever been done since.
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There was an official proclamation in October 1864, and I’ll just read you a little of that,
again making certain that we have a day of Thanksgiving, and this was set aside, and I’ll
read you just a little bit of this official proclamation. It says, “It has pleased Almighty
God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with His guardian care
against unfriendly designs from abroad and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and
signal victories over the enemy.”

A little further down he says, “Moreover He has been pleased to animate and inspire our
minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of
civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of
freedom and humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy
deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions.” It was beginning to be turned around in
’64, and the war was about over.

“Now therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint
and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed
by all my fellow citizens wherever they may then be as a day of Thanksgiving and praise
to Almighty God, the beneficent creator and ruler of the universe.”

I mean this man is sounding somewhat like a prophet of God. A beautiful proclamation,
but here’s what he wants us to do, and certainly he was thinking about the future
America.

“And I do further recommend to my fellow citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they
do reverently humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer us penitent and
fervent prayers and supplications to the great disposer of events for a return of the
inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land, which it has
pleased Him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout
all generations.” That’s today, ongoing, time ongoing.

“And testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed. Signed, Abraham Lincoln.”

Now today as we’re facing world cosmocide and a world calamity and a world
catastrophe, isn’t it time that we think about what Abraham Lincoln said, and think about
how far we’ve removed from where they were at that time in relation to God? How far
we are from God, and how much we can turn our lives around and receive all these
blessings that Abraham Lincoln is talking about. That’s what we need to be aware of
today.

Until next week, this is Gerald Flurry. Goodbye, friends.

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